On Wednesday, virtualization softare maker VMWare released version 3.1 of its Fusion software for the Mac.
Similar to other virtualization software packages, VMWare allows users to run alternate operating systems such as Windows and Linux distributions on Intel-based Macs at native speeds. Other features, such as Unity, allow users to run and minimize Windows applications from the Mac OS X Dock.
The new version, which can be found here, offers the following new features and fixes:
Improved Overall Performance – 35% Faster than VMware Fusion 3.0:
– Reduced time for suspending virtual machines.
– Faster Windows application launch times.
– Greatly improved scrolling speeds in Windows Vista and Windows 7 with Mac OS X 10.6.3.
2D/3D Graphics Improvements – Up to 5X Better 3D Graphics than VMware Fusion 3.0:
– OpenGL 2.1 for Windows Vista.
– OpenGL 2.1 for Windows 7.
– Greatly improved graphics performance.
– Aero is much faster on Windows Vista and Windows 7.
– Some games up to 10x faster than VMware Fusion 3.0 with VMware Fusion 3.1 and latest Mac OS X release.
– Greatly improved scrolling speeds in Windows Vista and Windows 7 with Mac OS X 10.6.3.
Unity Improvements:
– Minimizing Unity apps to the dock now shows app contents.
– Works with Exposé and Dock Exposé.
USB “EasyConnect”:
– Easily assign USB devices to virtual machine or Mac when connected.
– Remember USB device assignment between Mac and virtual machine restarts.
Bigger, More Complex Virtual Machines:
– 8-way SMP.
– 2 TB virtual disks.
PC Migration Improvements:
– Improvements to Migrate Your PC assistant, including better validation of names and better location prompt.
– Prompt user if Mac OS X guest account prevents guest access to shared folders instead of failing.
– Open new virtual machine upon successful migration.
– Enhanced user interface on PC being migrated including:
– New progress dialog on the PC being migrated as well as in VMware Fusion.
– Option to show converter logs and troubleshooting steps on PC if PC migration fails.
– Avoids port conflicts with Web server software installed on PC being migrated such as IIS, Tomcat, and Apache.
Boot Camp Improvements:
– Up to 5x disk performance in Boot Camp virtual machines.
– New option to minimize prompting for password (authentication dialogs) when using Boot Camp virtual machines.
– Handle Mac OS X disk changes better to avoid multiple references to Boot Camp partition in the Virtual Machine Library.
– Support for Office 2010 activation in Boot Camp virtual machines.
OVF Tool 2 Comes with VMware Fusion 3.1:
– Directly convert between any vSphere, VMX, or OVF source format to any vSphere, VMX, or OVF target format.
– Deploy virtual machines to vSphere using OVF Tool.
– Import and export of OVF packages into a vApprun 1.0 workspace.
User Interface Enhancements:
– Drag a disk image or virtual disk to the installation media pane of the assistant.
– Add shortcut for opening a virtual machines configuration file in default text editor for VMware Fusion (Hold down option and right-click in Virtual Machine Library).
User Interface Enhancements:
– User Experience Improvement Program.
New Guest Operating Systems Supported:
– Ubuntu 8.0.4.4: 32- and 64-bit.
– Ubuntu 10.04: 32- and 64-bit.
– SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 Service Pack 1: 32- and 64-bit.
– SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 1: 32- and 64-bit.
– RHEL 5.4: 32- and 64-bit.
Fusion 3.1 requires Mac OS X 10.5 or later to install and run and retails for US$79.99.